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Sunday, 1 January 2012

DIZZY - Classic Inspection

The infamous ‘Oliver Twins’ better known under the Codies label, primarily developed and released all their games on the CPC and Speccy. The brilliant thing about their lingering, albeit fringe popularity, is it is largely down to the hard boiled adventurer. As a character; Dizzy has appeared on nearly every format, maybe even rivalling Mario and Sonic in terms of appearances. Love him or loathe him, Dizzy had bags of instant appeal and has actually aged fairly well.

Now look, let’s get things straight. You’re an egg, right? There’s a wizard running wild and your land is rife with athlete’s foot, ok? (Well, it’s not ok, but you know what I mean.) Sounds like you've got your work cut out eh? Standing at around 30 screens tall, his first adventure is also one of the smallest. It is hard at first, tricky even, but in most cases you’ll love doing the tricky stuff. Try to imagine all the weirdest bits from the many classic fairy-tales and fables, all happening at once, with ‘Dizzy’ having to sort everything out whilst collecting all manner of objects.

Visually, back then – Dizzy was the closest thing to a true cinematic cartoon adventure. For sure, the sprites look a bit nobby today, but back then you only needed to see what was going on... your imagination filled in the rest. The brothers demonstrated that they had a solid grasp of the fundamental principles of animation. This could be witnessed every time Dizzy rolled or somersaulted through the air. They were also able to cram so much charm into their little creation, using hardly any detail.

As for the controls, I didn't like them much – it’s really awkward. I forgot how fiddly jumping was, and you need to do it so often it drives you mad. The music however is some of ‘David Whittaker’s’ best and as you play, you’ll find your head swaying and feet tapping along to the beat.

Dizzy is built around a cute idea, and still holds up rather well, but... and I’m sure the egg head community will disagree… you’re left with a game that although good in its day, was bettered by the many sequels that followed, leaving a slightly better than average game.